Summary
Build the Sharpen generator path — the "blind self-critique" generation mode
that is the quality engine in the AI-action-verbs design. This is Tier 2 work
from docs/development/design/ai-action-verbs-and-sharpen-mechanic.md
(Status: Proposed, 2026-06-21).
Why
The product philosophy is correction > creation. A model shown its own draft
trends toward consistency and self-defense ("this is fine, I wrote it"). The same
model shown the identical content with the authorship tag stripped, framed as
"critique and improve this candidate's draft," switches into critical evaluation
and finds the weaknesses. Sharpen operationalizes that as a prompt wrapper. It is
the brand promise made literal — tagline "See yourself, sharpened."
This is distinct from the two modes we run today:
- Fresh generation (mode 2, today's "Regenerate"): no prior draft, re-derives
everything, discards good structure — and is the most inference-expensive mode.
- Self-aware incremental (mode 1): prior draft framed as "you wrote this,
update it" — anchors and entrenches.
Sharpen is mode 3: prior draft in context, authorship hidden, ask for critique.
Scope
- A generator wrapper that feeds the prior artifact draft to the existing
generator framed as external work to critique — never "you wrote this."
- Per-surface opt-in (the design is explicit that the user does not pick the
mechanic at generation time; the system selects the verb per surface + state).
- Prime candidates: the staleness banners that are Refresh-intent but
Regenerate-behavior today (cover letter, prep) — see the design's Implementation
section.
Dependency / sequencing
The generator path itself can be prototyped independently. But making Sharpen
the default, run-confidently verb depends on rollback existing (the data-safety
axis) — otherwise a Sharpen that regresses output is unrecoverable. See the
version-history/rollback issue; the design's "quality vs safety are orthogonal"
section is the rationale. Land rollback before flipping Sharpen on as default.
Out of scope
Acceptance criteria
Design: docs/development/design/ai-action-verbs-and-sharpen-mechanic.md
Related: #31 (Tier 1 standardization)
Summary
Build the Sharpen generator path — the "blind self-critique" generation mode
that is the quality engine in the AI-action-verbs design. This is Tier 2 work
from
docs/development/design/ai-action-verbs-and-sharpen-mechanic.md(Status: Proposed, 2026-06-21).
Why
The product philosophy is correction > creation. A model shown its own draft
trends toward consistency and self-defense ("this is fine, I wrote it"). The same
model shown the identical content with the authorship tag stripped, framed as
"critique and improve this candidate's draft," switches into critical evaluation
and finds the weaknesses. Sharpen operationalizes that as a prompt wrapper. It is
the brand promise made literal — tagline "See yourself, sharpened."
This is distinct from the two modes we run today:
everything, discards good structure — and is the most inference-expensive mode.
update it" — anchors and entrenches.
Sharpen is mode 3: prior draft in context, authorship hidden, ask for critique.
Scope
generator framed as external work to critique — never "you wrote this."
mechanic at generation time; the system selects the verb per surface + state).
Regenerate-behavior today (cover letter, prep) — see the design's Implementation
section.
Dependency / sequencing
The generator path itself can be prototyped independently. But making Sharpen
the default, run-confidently verb depends on rollback existing (the data-safety
axis) — otherwise a Sharpen that regresses output is unrecoverable. See the
version-history/rollback issue; the design's "quality vs safety are orthogonal"
section is the rationale. Land rollback before flipping Sharpen on as default.
Out of scope
aiButton variant) — that is Standardize AI-action button styling and labels site-wide #31.Acceptance criteria
external/unattributed work to critique, with no "you authored this" framing.
instead of from-scratch regeneration.
Design:
docs/development/design/ai-action-verbs-and-sharpen-mechanic.mdRelated: #31 (Tier 1 standardization)